Arab Republic of Egypt Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade General Organization for Export and Import Control

Today, Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, the Prime Minister, held a meeting to review the procedures for customs system reform and curbing smuggling operations, in the presence of Lieutenant General Engineer/ Kamel El-Wazir, Deputy Prime Minister for Industrial Development, Minister of Industry and Transport; Mr. Ahmed Kojak, Minister of Finance; Mr. Sherif El-Kilani, Deputy Minister of Finance for Tax Policies and Supervisor of the Customs Authority; Major General/ Essam El-Naggar, Chairman of the General Organization for Export and Import Control (GOEIC); Mr. Essam Omar, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank; Dr. Amani El-Wasal, Head of the Agreements and Foreign Trade Sector at the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade, Executive Director of the Export Development Fund; Mr. Ahmed El-Asqalani, Head of the Central Administration for Air Imports and Exports Customs at the Customs Authority, alongside officials from the ministries and concerned authorities.

The Prime Minister confirmed the government's interest to develop the customs system as a necessary step to enhance the competitiveness of the national exports and improve the business environment.

During the meeting, Mr. Ahmed Kajok, Minister of Finance, submitted the most significant procedures included in the plan of reforming the customs system and curbing smuggling, and identified the entities responsible for implementation, as well as the time frame for implementing each procedure, and the measures that require issuance of legislative amendments.

The Minister demonstrated that the reform plan included measures, some of which include facilitation and incentives, including the installment of customs duties on production requirements, facilitating and streamlining the pre-clearance system, granting the advantage of customs clearance at the customer’s premises for companies included in the White List and joining the Authorized Economic Operator (AEO), in addition to reducing rates of customs release time, creating a user guide for customs dealings, as well as allowing electronic payments, as well as allowing companies to establish logistics service centers in an attempt to enhance transit trade.

The Minister of Finance added that the measures also included steps to regulate the customs system, including governance of mechanisms for securing and tracking movement of goods and shipments, reviewing categories included in the customs tariff, especially for targeted goods and industrial sectors, training Customs Authority staff along with raising their technical capabilities and their redeployment within customs ports, in addition to updating the Customs Authority’s website, expanding licensing to establish public customs warehouses inside the dry ports to receive all goods, as well as reviewing the conditions necessary to join the Authorized Economic Operator Program in an effort to double the number of companies joining the program to 500 companies.

Mr. Ahmed Kajok also displayed important indicators on rates of smuggling crimes that were detected in 2024, and the categories and classifications of the seized goods. He also tackled a number of proposed controls to curb smuggling at various ports, and also discussed the package of proposed measures for electronic development of the customs system to close the loopholes in customs smuggling.

For his part, Major General Essam El-Naggar, Chairman of the GOEIC, presented the executive position of the first phase of the facilitation package to improve customs release time and enhance Egyptian trade indicators.

Chairman of the GOEIC discussed the mechanisms followed to implement these facilitation and the positive results achieved, as he pointed out that the continuous work of the entities responsible for the customs release system throughout the week with a non-stop shift system contributed to complete a greater number of work tasks and doubling the number of shipments being examined. The GOEIC also issued executive instructions to facilitate registration on the White List that provides companies with benefits and facilities. The GOEIC also launched the electronic portal for its work as of January 2024 in three languages, which contributed to providing digital services for 24 hours and streamlining and accelerating the registration processes of exporters and importers, and providing updated information to customers, within the digital transformation plan, in addition extraction of importers and exporters cards through the Egypt Digital Platform.

In her turn, Dr. Amani Al-Wasal, Executive Director of the Export Development Fund, submitted the most important measures proposed by the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Trade to curb smuggling, and the entity implementing each measure. These measures aim to restricting procedures applied to the customs ports, controlling any smuggling attempts, and following up on the disposal of the released shipments.